The motion picture industry fired back at websites that decided to go dark or otherwise interrupt services today (Wednesday) to protest against anti-piracy bills that are due to be voted on in the House and Senate before the end of the month. In a statement posted on the MPAA's website, Christopher Dodd, the organization's CEO, charged that "some technology business interests are resorting to stunts that punish their users or turn them into their corporate pawns." He called the protests, which included the blackout of the much-accessed website Wikipedia, "an irresponsible response and a disservice." But News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, a staunch backer of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate, suggested that the protests were having an effect. "Seems blogosphere has succeeded in terrorizing many senators and congressmen who previously committed. Politicians [are] all the same," he tweeted. On the other hand Google, which placed a black bar over its logo (only a tiny trace of the middle "g" is visible) linked to a statement saying that "80 members of Congress are in [the] sway" of media companies like News Corp, Sony, Comcast, and the movie and recording industry associations, while only 30 are against and the remainder undecided or undeclared." On the other hand, Mozilla, the nonprofit cooperative that created the Firefox web browser, emailed a statement to its users warning that the legislation "could fundamentally alter the Internet we know and love."

18/01/2012